Health & Fitness

For a patient with chronic kidney disease, specific kidney diets are an essential part of maintaining good health. For those patients undergoing dialysis, this first means making sure to eat enough calories. This can be a challenge since chronic kidney disease patients typically begin to lose their appetite.

Kidney Diets Basics
However, the dialysis procedure is very physically taxing, so patients must make an extra effort to keep their strength. This requires eating sufficient amounts of good healthy food. More specific kidney diet guidelines consist of avoiding certain food items that may create an extra load on the kidneys.

Since many kidney disease patients are also diabetic, the diet guidelines of diabetes patients must be followed. Some physicians additionally recommend that kidney disease patients follow a low protein diet, in order to avoid the kidney stress of processing this nutrient. There are some studies that say that protein restricted diets dont really have much on an effect. So ask your doctor what he or she things is right in your case. Fluid intake is another important element to monitor in kidney diets in order to avoid going to either extreme of excess water retention or dehydration.

Most kidney disease patients follow diets that prohibit the excess intake of sodium, potassium, and phosphates. An excessive sodium intake can cause patients to retain water. Excess potassium can cause an irregular heartbeat and muscle weakness. High phosphate levels in the blood can cause calcium to be pulled out of bones so should be avoided as well. Avoiding these items means kidney diets usually avoid salt, some vegetables, milk, meat, fish and cheese.

The more kidney disease information someone has, the better care they can take care of their health. Having information about renal disease early can help people diagnose it earlier. This is especially important since some people with chronic kidney disease do not have any symptoms.Good sources of kidney disease information include your physicians, textbooks and Websites much like this one.

Kidney Disease Basics
As the kidney functioning declines, symptoms can include problems such as fatigue, frequent headaches and a loss of appetite. Additionally, sleep problems may start to take place at this point, as well as itchy skin, frequent urination, nausea, water retention, skin darkening and muscle cramps.

Unfortunately, chronic renal disease may not always have symptoms. In fact, symptoms often do not appear until the patient has lost about 70% of their kidney function. For that reason, doctors may have to screen you for it to catch it early and take measures to stop its progress. This is especially important if you are at high risk due to other conditions, such as diabetes or high blood pressure. Health professionals typically use blood and urine tests to measure changing levels of bloodstream chemicals.

This helps determine how well the kidneys are working. Specifically, levels of certain chemicals, such as urea and creatinine, begin to increase as kidney function declines. Doctors can also do an ultrasound scan to check the kidneys for abnormalities.

A kidney disease diet is designed to reduce the amount of work that a damaged kidney must perform. Specifically, the diet makes it easier for your kidneys to filter toxic certain substances from your body. Additionally, the diet helps the kidneys to maintain proper fluid and electrolyte balance.

Kidney Disease Diet Basics
Depending on the extent of your kidney damage and other conditions that you have, your kidney disease diet should avoid certain elements. For instance, a kidney disease diet will seek to control the intake of sodium, potassium, phosphate and fluids in general. These diets may also seek to limit the amount of protein that a patient consumes. Dietary guidelines for kidney disease patients might include the following.

Firstly, eating too much salt can cause water retention in the hands and feet. Water retention can also increase your risk of symptoms such as heart failure, pulmonary edema and high blood pressure. Secondly, excess potassium in your bloodstream can cause muscle weakness and irregular heart rhythms.

For this reason, some potassium-rich salt substitutes and some specific fruits and vegetables should be avoided. Thirdly, too much phosphorus can cause calcium to be pulled from your bones, leading to health problems. Consequently milk, cheese, meat, chicken and fish intake should be closely watched. Lastly, some studies suggest that a low protein diet is beneficial to kidney disease patients. This subject is not as well decided, however, so a patient might want to specifically question his or her physician on this topic.